Certainly this is not the first hand-cranked drill, but it just may be the first one made out of a pencil sharpener (also probably the first one to inspire a pseudo-nursery rhyme).

Although hand-held writing tools have been around for centuries, the classic wood-cased pencil with a lead point was a late 19th century invention. Before typewriters, much informal writing in ...

2. Bostitch Office Twist-n-Sharp Manual Pencil Sharpener On the off chance your tween hasn’t switched over to writing in pen, this Bostitch Office Twist-n-Sharp pencil sharpener is a solid pick ...

Never have a dull moment with a solid pencil sharpener. A classic option is a manual one with an old-school hand crank—once a staple of classrooms and art studios everywhere.

This story was published April 8, 2016. We forgot to pencil it down in our calendars, so National Pencil Day came and went on March 30 without much fanfare. But David Rees probably celebrated it.